it looks that the current VMWare Horizon View Client for Linux and Mac OS X have an issue with Keyboard mappings, for example you are using Scandinavien or Swiss Layouts on the PC / Thin Client and in the VM the Keyboard Layout changes to English(US). It also looks that it doesn’t matter what Keyboard Layout’s are available in the VM, so as sample also a pure German VM without any US Settings/Layout available(!) switch to English(US).

This behavior is also only related to the current Horizon View Client (IGEL Firmware = 4.12.100), older Clients from VMWare are working fine in my known cases (IGEL Firmware < 4.12.100) incl. the current Client for Mac OS X which shows the same "wrong" behavior like the current Linux Client (old OS X Clients are working fine too).
A Workaround to fix this issue is the following registry tweak for the VM's which can be applied thru a Group Policy or set in the local RegEdit if needed.
Open the Registry and browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
Create a new Registry Setting:
Value name: IgnoreRemoteKeyboardLayout
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 1
Apply the setting/policy to the affected VM's only, the issue should be fixed now and the language settings in the VM will be used for the session.
As said and in general, the issue can happen but it don't have to be... Only use it if required, i will not provide any warranty at all and you do this on your own risk.
Cheers
Michael
P.S.: This will also fix issues with other Windows based Remote Sessions like RDP, ICA or whatever if you run in a similar issue. Please note: After done this setting the local client keyboard layout will always be ignored.

i just got an issue where the user opens a session from an IGEL Linux / Windows PC to a XenApp / XenDesktop environment. This works fine until the user starts a second session in the first session to an other XenDesktop/XenApp environment.

The connection are done thru a Storefront server.

If this issue happens also to you, try the following registry setting in the Server / Desktop the user connects first.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\Dazzle]

“WSCReconnectMode”=”0”

Please note: Test in advance, i do not provide any warranty that this will fix the issue at all or for a data loss in case of a wrong impementation. You are fully responsible if you apply this setting!

maybe you already noticed that you have an USB Security configuration in the Device section of the IGEL Setup.

If you want to allow a special USB Memory mostly people use the Vendor ID (VID) and Product ID (PID) for this. This works quite well but has one big disadvantage…. It works for all USB Memory with the same VID and PID.

To extend this, you can use the UUID (Unique ID) but how can you setup this?

1) First of all, it will only work with an Filesystem that supports a UUID… NTFS will do, FAT16 or FAT32 will not. So you need to format the USB Memory with NTFS.

2) Now use a thin client where one or more storage devices are allowed without any USB restrictions.

3) Open a console session and type in the command: “ls /dev/disk/by-uuid”. You will get a short list now and insert the USB Stick. Type in “ls /dev/disk/by-uuid” again, compare these lists and write down the new one. The UUID should look like “FE1CFEABB210AA”.

4) Create a new USB Device configuration and type in the PID/VID and the UUID you have written down and assign the configuration to a client. Don’t forget to allow HID devices (Mouse/ Keyboards) in General before assigning the configuration. For VID and PID, use always 4 Digits like 0C00 and remember: Linux is case sensitive! If you don’t know how you can get the VID and PID type in lsusb.

5) Done… Now you have a unique USB Memory to use with the client, all other will not work anymore. Also if someone format this USB Memory it will also not work anymore. Secure and easy to setup.

if you’re using a Linux based IGEL Thin Client together with an analog Monitor or TV and you get only a black Screen/frequency error or the Monitor goes in the standby mode this article will provide you some guidance how this can be fixed.

1) Don’t use a KVM Switch in general for your tests.

2) Make sure that you have the right VGA cable in place, there are two Versions available: 14 and 15 pole. Depending on the Display you could be required to use an 15 pole cable.

3) Not all issues can be fixed and if possible test also the connection with a DVI cable.

4) If using a DVI-I splitter cable to VGA / DVI-D make sure that the cable is an original IGEL Y-Cable or if using a Universal Desktop OS converted device a Y-Cable certified by the Vendor of the inbuild Graphic Card. Splitter cables DVI-I to 2x DVI or DVI to 2x VGA (both are not DVI Standard and only used if a vendor extend the DVI standard by there own) are not supported with original IGEL Thin Clients, for Universal Desktop OS converted devices this depends on the inbuild GFX Card: Please contact the hardware Vendor in this case.

5) If you’re using VGA and you got an issue try the following Settings in the IGEL Setup->System->Registry:

x.xserver0.analog_timings= Enabled
x.xserver0.connector= VGA, if you’re using two Displays also set x.xserver0.screen1.connector to the right port
x.xserver0.noddc= Enabled

Assign the configuration and reboot the device, if this did not solve the issue try 1-4 or open a support case at IGEL but mostly the issue should be fixed thru these Settings.

if you’ve connected several Audio Devices to an IGEL Linux based Thin Client, you might want to be able to configure the default Audio Device for your Citrix Session. This will only work for IGEL Firmware with Citrix Receiver 12 or 12.1!

Currently this can’t be done via the IGEL Setup but there is a way how this task can be performed.

First of all: This will only work as long the Client configuration is not touched or modified by the IGEL Universal Management Suite or the local Setup! If you change something here, you have to reboot the Client to setup the configuration again.

Preparing the configuration: Connect all Audio Devices to the Thin Client and open the Sound Mixer Tool (Speaker Symbol in the Taskbar), to open the Tool use the right mouse button and click on the Symbol->Select Audio-Settings

Now select Input and click on Advanced Settings, in the drop down menu “Soundcard” write down the name for the device without the (Alsa mixer) extension. Sample UD5 Internal Soundcard= HDA VIA VT82xx or the 1st USB Headset = USB Headphone Set

After this is done and you got the name for the Audio Device close the Audio Mixer and open the local IGEL Setup or the UMS Profile. Now browse to System->Firmware Customization->Custom Commands->Desktop Commands->Custom Command Desktop final and enter here:

Replace HDA VIA VT82xx with the name of the Audio Device you want to set as default, after this is done you can assign the configuration and reboot the device. Now the default Audio Device is configured until a new Audio Device is connected to the Client, a new device will be automaticly set as default.

For Firmwares with an ICA Client 11 or older change the Audio Device Name to /dev/dsp0 (1st Audio Device) /dev/dsp1 (2nt Audio Device) and so on…. The ICA Client Version 11 and below is using an other Audio System and will not work with the Device Names shown in the Sound Mixer.

if you’ve configured the Firefox Browser coming with the IGEL LX/OS Operating System to start in Kiosk Mode (no menus available) you maybe have noticed that still the Tabs bar is shown and the user can open an other Website. I’ve currently not found a setting in the regular IGEL Setup GUI but you will found it in the registry.

To hide the tab bar again open the local Setup or the UMS Profile and browse to System->Registry->Sessions->browser*no*->app and enable the setting “tabs_bar_hidden”, after this configuration is applied the tab bar will not be shown anymore.

This is related to the newer Firefox Versions coming with the IGEL Linux and you will not see this issue with older Firmware Versions.

Cheers

Michael

P.S.: There are a lot of more Settings in this part of the registry to configure the browser session a lot more then in the GUI, just check it out.

i’ve been asked if it is possible to Setup a public dislaimer with use Terms for the IGEL LX/OS based Clients.

This can be done but the configuration is hidden in the registry, open the local IGEL Setup or the UMS Profile and browse to system->registry->userinterface->disclaimer. Here you will find several Settings to configure the disclaimer, the disclaimer will pop up after a boot and prevent Access until the disclaimer is confirmed or perform a shutdown/reboot after the user denied the disclaimer.

this is really rare but sometimes it might happen that you have issues with the display of a mouse pointer in an ICA or RDP session. If this is the case, try first this setting: IGEL Setup or Profile->System->Registry->x.xserver0.sw_cursor

sometimes user try to setup a roaming solution together with Thin Clients and discover different connection issues and the roaming in general works bad.

Reasons for roaming issues:

– The WiFi Adapter is not designed for a roaming enterprise solution – This happens very often and mostly WiFi devices are designed for a stationary or home/office use where roaming is not required by default. This includes also the WiFi Adapter used in the IGEL extension food and nearly every WiFi Adapter sold at retail market’s.

– To small Antenna’s, a USB WiFi dongle comes with a 2 up to 5 cm (1 or 2 inch) antenna and this is in general no deal for a roaming WiFi connection. If you compare this to a Laptop antenna, which is very often 15cm or more included into the display part of an “enterprise” Laptop, it has no Chance to provide a good result. Retail home use Laptop’s do also mostly not provide a large antenna, this can be compared quite easy… Use a 600$ home and a 1300$ enterprise Laptop and compare the WiFi signal quality, in 80% of all test scenario’s you will see a big difference here and the enterprise Laptop provide a much better signal quality.

– Antenna is covered by parts of the device case and/or the signal is blocked in the direction to the Access Point.

How to solve this?

Simple: Forget WiFi network card’s or USB Adapter’s and take a new approach to setup a roaming solution: Use an Ethernet to WiFi bridge. This way is more expensive then a funny USB WiFi gimmick solution, but it will work and you have a lot of different solutions available depending on the scenario.

Benefit: The thin client/end device don’t has to deal with the WiFi connection at all, these device also do have more seperate antenna’s and very often more then one connection interface/circuit to provide permanent connection stability. It’s driver independent and it will work with Windows CE, Linux and Windows based end user devices out of the box thru the ethernet port.

Usage: Industrial WiFi requirements, Thin Client and WiFi device are mounted on a cart, truck, construction vehicle or similar. This solutions is not or only limited useable for regular Office walk thru designs.

Devices:

From the lower price segment these devices will work good for small/medium environment’s: Netgear WiFi Bridge N900, Price ~100 US$, two antennas (picture) or Cisco Small Business – WET200 Bridge, Price ~130 US$ with two antennas. For outdoor solutions and high end requirements (large range/two or more connection circuits) the price range can go up to 1000 US$ or more. In any way: All devices that can be used as a WiFi Bridge (mostly all Access Points/Routers) can be used for this trick and they provide much better results then any WiFi USB dongle will do.

Update: I’ve been asked for an high end outdoor solution device, look @ Funkwerk/Bintec (www.teldat.de) for Bridge devices, the biggest devices can handle up to a 5km (4 Miles) distance and they always come with multiple circuits and antennas like the W1002n (up to 1000m range). But please: These devices are mostly not designed for indoor use and are very expensive (between 400 and 3000 US$)! So for industrial use in construction areas, mines or similar it might be ok but for the use in a habitation or indoor: Forget it please!!!

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: Like everytime no guarantee from my side and you need to test this! This article is also only for mobile clients moving around in a building or area a lot!

P.S.2: This will only provide a little help against radio interference, check this out too if the issue is not solved by an Ethernet to WiFi bridge! I’ve got an old USB Bluetooth dongle that kills any WiFi (B/G/N=2.4 GHz) connection in a 5m (15 feet) area as example…. 🙂

currently it’s not possible to manage the overall volume for IGEL based Thin Clients thru the UMS or to configure it during the start with a local configuration.

There are some ways to deal with this by transfer the asound.state config file but this way is not permanent and also not really easy to setup, so it’s not useful from my point of view.
After some test’s on a customer site we figure out how we can do this very simple/flexible and this is how you can configure it:

In the local Client Setup or the IGEL UMS Profile open the configuration, now browse to System->Firmware Customization->Custom Commands->Desktop Commands->Custom Command Desktop Final and now enter here:

Please note: you can play around with this command in the command line and it’s also possible to configure the record volume and much more in this way. If you’re using the mentioned configuration it will boost the Audio Volume to 156% at all and this could be to much for your speakers, so please figure out the best volume for your devices. Also it’s important to know that you can hide the Sound Mixer thru the Accessories configuration to prevent that a user can change this during runtime. Also these settings will be applied after a restart again, user settings will not stay permanent anymore! …and of course you can use these command to mute the system too! 😉

Cheers

Michael

P.S.: I’ve released an article here how to deal with cron job’s, you can use these commands with a time scheduled cron job too and this will apply also the volume configuration “during” the run time without any user interaction….

P.S.2: The mentioned settings are hardware independent and will work with all IGEL Linux based devices incl. the UD2 Multimedia ARM or IGEL Universal Desktop OS (UDC) based PC’s. For IGEL Universal Desktop OS the 3rd party sound card must be supported in general, if not it can’t work!

if you got an SSL Error 4 if you try to setup an ICA Connection thru an Citrix Access Gateway / Netscaler with the IGEL UD2 Multimedia (ARM based, Firmware 1.03.100). Don’t try to solve it! Currently it looks that the Citrix Receiver for ARM based systems can not connect to a Citrix environment (XenDesktop, XenApp or VDIinaBox) thru CAG/Netscaler. In this case you have to use a x86 based system like the UD3 or UD5, with these devices i don’t got any issue during my test’s with Firmware 4.10.100.

I will post an update here if a solution is available.

Cheers
Michael

P.S.: This issue should also pop up with any other ARM based device using the Citrix Receiver for Linux and it don’t seems to be a general IGEL UD2 Multimedia issue. Iam only sorry that this is not mentioned in the release notes in any way….

sometimes i’ve been asked why the Hostname of a IGEL Linux based Thin Client is not entered in a Microsoft based DNS Server. The reason for this is mostly quite simple, the DHCP Server is not configured to handle none Windows devices and to update the DNS records for these devices. Means you need to provide credentials to the DHCP Server to update the DNS records, see also here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc775839(v=ws.10).aspx

today IGEL Technology has released a new IGEL Universal Desktop LX (1.03.100) for the UD2-LX MultiMedia. The update is available via www.myigel.biz, please consult the release notes to get a full overview.

if you’re working with seamless apps in an Citrix Environment it can happen, that sometimes a Window drops behind an other window. For example you are working in Outlook and open a Email and the new email Window appears behind the main Outlook window. For the user it Looks like the session is freezed or similar.

There are a couple of Settings to fix this but the disadvantage: you’re required to test it by your own. Application and environments are working different and there is no general rule how this can be fixed.

Open the IGEL Setup or the UMS Profile and go to System->Registry->ICA->WFCLIENT, here try to modify the following settings:

Regarding the results from the past i would prefer starting with the Settings marked in blue. In advance you should also try to change two settings from the IGEL OS, these settings can be found also in the registry->windowmanager->wm0 and then change:

focusonmap, focushint and/or preventfocusstealing

Also here, different combinations can provide different results depending on the environment.

If everything doesn’t help, try to contact the Software Vendor for your application; a couple of applications are not able to work seamless regarding the fact that they do not handle Windows in the Microsoft way (Application developed in Delphi as examble). Try also if a “Desktop Session” will bypass the issue for the user.

As said, you need to spend some time here and i can’t guarentee that this will fix the issue at all. Please test it serious and don’t roll out a not tested configuration to a bunch of thin clients at once.

Cheers

Michael

P.S.: This can also happen for any Version of the Citrix Receiver for Windows, you can try the same settings here.

very often i’ve been asked how a Citrix or Microsoft RDS fullscreen session can be minimized in an IGEL Universal Desktop LX/OS firmware. By default IGEL has not enabled this but this task is simple to do….

Open the IGEL Setup or the UMS Profile, now go to User Interface->Hotkeys->Commands and select Minimize all Windows… Click on Edit now and activate the hotkey, i prefer CTRL¦ALT and ESC (Write Escape in the Hotkey field to set ESC) but you can also set other combinations of course. Please make sure that your set combination do not conflict with any other Linux or Windows key combination!

Close the Setup or the profile (assign the profile to an Client if not already done) and here you go.

Cheers

Michael

P.S.: One Extension, of course any local Client key mapping do not work if the keyboard is mapped into the session thru “real” USB redirection!

P.S.2: For ICA Sessions it could be required to Setup a second key combination to Stop the direct Keyboard Passthrough, this configuration can be found in the IGEL Setup->System->Registry->ica->wfclient and then configure the following Settings: keypassthroughescapechar and keypassthroughescapeshift. This can be also configured with a profile in the IGEL UMS. If you’re connecting thru the Firefox Browser (Citrix Webinterface) you have to Setup the configuration in the Default.ica file from the Webinterface!

do you have dislocated offices and users reporting a jumping or flickering mouse pointer? From my expierence this is a bandwith/latency issue that should be investigated at all.

To fix or improve this for the Linux Version of the Citrix Receiver in an IGEL Firmware try:

System->Registry and then ica.wfclient.mousetimer=0, ica.wfclient.pointerclicktime=10 and ica.wfclient.pointergrabtime=10. All settings needs to be modified, test this with one device/user first before apply these modification to a bunch of clients.

Windows versions of the Receiver do not show this effect in general, they are just slower in this scenario.